Posts tagged “engine”

“You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.”

Ever wondered what the inside of a jet engine looks like? Here is a CFM56 engine uncovered. More than 30 000 of these have been built, but it will set you back around USD 10 million for one. This one is an example from Air New Zealand, and was used in its 737 fleet. At one time, AirNZ was a quality, full service airline (it even had the advertising slogan ‘Pride of the Pacific’ but nowadays it has changed into a budget airline which charges extra for add-ons, and also service levels onboard have fallen. Sad to see a once great airline change so much.

But we customers are lucky to have a choice……I now avoid any flights on airlines that use 10 across seating on their 777s, and I am also checking the seating before making reservations…things like not booking on the newer Lufthansa A320NEO aircraft where they have put seats closer together (with even less legroom than Ryanair) and have removed one galley and toilet to squeeze in even more seats. There is a limit, and some airlines have passed that limit for what is acceptable. And if the airlines think that by making economy class uncomfortable that they will force me to upgrade to premium economy, then that is just not going to work….the answer is to choose another airline. Their loss.

and another photo…Honningsvag in north Norway, high above the Artic Circle.

Thought for the day….”Good management consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people”
“Goals are like underwear, you have to change them once in a while to feel better about yourself”.

Did you know that the North Pole and South Pole have only 1 sunrise and 1 sunset each year? And because the speed that the Earth rotates at is slowing down, the years are also getting shorter, around 400 million years ago a year was about 410 days, although the days were then only 21 hours long. Even on the Equator, the days are not exactly 12 hours long, due to changes in the size of the sun and atmospheric conditions, and daylight can up to 7 minutes longer. And due to the unusual orbit of the Earth, then the Northern Hemisphere has longer days than the Southern Hemisphere, with the sun being north of the Equator for 4 more days than in the Southern Hemisphere. People who build sundials will also know about the Equation of Time, which is used to make corrections for the uneven spinning of the Earth.

Another steam train photo today, but this time the engine driver. The photo was taken recently in Uppsala, Sweden during one of the weekend steam train specials, and is a timeless photo. All aboard please!!

Thought for the day….” Pull the string and it will go wherever you wish. Push the string, and it will go nowhere at all”.

“Success finds a way, failure finds an excuse”

Many people outside of Scandinavia have an idea that Sweden is modern, clean and efficient, with a well-developed social system. Once you spend a little time there, and start to read the newspapers and watch TV, then you soon realize that Sweden is far from that image. Immigration is a problem (there were riots again recently in the suburbs of the Swedish capital, Stockholm), with discrimination against immigrants increasing. Swedes tolerate foreigners, but they do not accept them. That is one reason that many immigrants are confined to certain areas of the larger cities. You can see people sleeping on the streets, and even in the very centre of the Swedish capital, there are large numbers of beggars on the streets. The number of people going through the rubbish bins in the cities shows that things are getting much worse. The newspapers reveal stories of people sleeping in hospital corridors due to shortages of beds, waiting lists for operations and pensioners not receiving sufficient money for a good standard of living. As for technology, Sweden is far behind some countries. Some shops will not even accept credit cards, and the Swedes still demand paper forms and photocopies for almost everything official. As for cleanliness, tourists are now surprised to see just how dirty parts of Sweden are. The city centre in Stockholm is dirty, with rubbish, graffiti and general grime. Public works seem to have been cut back far too much, and you keep noticing areas of decay and neglect. Whereas Sweden might once have been something of a model to the rest of the world, it has changed, and it has changed a lot. Some things have remained good, like maternity and paternity leave and benefits, but overall, Sweden has slipped a long way. Stories of Swedish trains halted due to snow and ice, recent bus strikes and increased bankruptcies also show things things have gone wrong in Sweden. It is no longer a model society.

New made to look old for the photo today. The photo is of a preserved steam train at Uppsala, Sweden on one of its weekend runs. The original photo was taken in RAW, then converted to black & white, then changed to sepia. Quite an impressive piece of machinery and nothing in the photo gives a clue that it was taken in 2013 instead of 1930.